World of Warcraft quitter: ‘I was addicted’

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World of Warcraft quitter: ‘I was addicted’

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World of Warcraft quitter: ‘I was addicted’ (2010)
July 30th, 2010, 4:44 pm · 131 Comments · posted by Ian Hamilton

Nicky Haik was stuck at home sick for a week when he was 13. Out of boredom, he started playing “World of Warcraft.”

During the next five years, he says he spent somewhere between 175 and 200 solid days, or well over 4,000 hours, playing the game made by Irvine-based Blizzard. On average, that’s more than two hours per day every day. According to Haik, he could start the game up on a Friday when he got home from school and not turn it off until early Monday morning.

The 18-year-old New Jersey resident and recent high school grad decided it was time to quit, and he did so earlier this month in extraordinary fashion. He had tried deactivating his account before, but that only lasted a couple of weeks before he turned it back on again.

On July 8, he started up the video camera and began dismantling everything he had created through the years.

See the video for yourself

In just under two minutes, he gives away all of his virtual gear and manually deletes his characters. He initially linked the video on Facebook to prove to family and high school classmates he had finally done it.

He says he didn’t expect it to be viewed by so many people. It was late when he made it, and he accidentally typed the wrong number of hours he spent playing the game. He concludes the video by deleting his primary character, stating “I hope this inspires you to quit as well. Remember, the ‘cooler’ you [sic] character looks in World of Warcraft, the sadder your real life is.”

The video has become a minor Internet sensation, garnering more than 400,000 views in the few weeks since it has been out and becoming a lightning rod for discussion about addiction in video games.

The morning after he posted it to his friends on Facebook it had 3,000 views. Then he looked again, and it had 30,000 views. By that evening, it had 100,000 and 200,000 the next day.

“You could have just kept your toons and play WoW casually like a normal person,” writes @Gr0mmet, one of some 4,300 comments on the video.

Another user, Th0mius, said “I balance a full time job, a girlfriend, college, healthy friendships in REAL LIFE, Travel, and a full Raid schedule…. don’t blame wow, blame yourself.”

They’re not all bad, in fact, many are supportive.

“Great job. I’m cheering for You dude! The world is waiting! :D ,” writes @TheR00Z, another Youtube user.

He did it because he says he was addicted.

“I was addicted and felt compelled to play whenever I could in order to get better gear, more gold and more achievements. This grind eventually became very boring…I couldn’t stop though because of all the time I had invested in it and this “need” for virtual gear and gold I possessed,” said Haik.

The video seems to have struck a chord with people, some arguing whether you can be addicted to World of Warcraft.

Haik points to the analytical user data for his video which shows it is popular with males age 18-44. He thinks that, along with the critical comments, means “World of Warcraft is a fairly big insecurity in men ages 18-34, which is why they viewed the video AND felt compelled to comment and explain their story or view of the situation,” Haik says. “The video seemed to be successful because it targeted an issue that concerned almost all serious WoW players, that being addiction and the resulting lesser social life.”

Bonnie Nardi, a UC Irvine anthropology professor and author of “My Life as a Night Elf Priest,” a book about “World of Warcraft” written from the perspective of an anthropologist, points out all the positive things a game like WoW can instill in a player.

“People who play games such as World of Warcraft are active agents; they develop skilled play, they play in collaboration with others…these active aspects of gaming tend to be hidden but they are much more characteristic of game play as a whole than the small percentage of people whose personal problems lead them to seek solace in a game,” said Nardi. “They might just as easily seek solace in alcohol or develop food-related disorders, or engage in excessive exercise. Of course gamers themselves are not immune to the messages of the culture, and may feel vaguely guilty about the time they spend playing. That they often have to justify this time to friends and family does not help. No one asks them why they are spending so much time watching television, an activity requiring far less cognitive capacity, sociality, and inventiveness than playing a game like World of Warcraft.”

For his part, Haik says his friends and family are happy he quit, and since quitting he has gone out with friends, attended parties and started playing the piano more.

“Even when I’m doing ‘nothing’ and just hanging around the house, it is more relaxing than playing WoW every night till 3 a.m.” Haik said this summer he is working as a pool lifeguard and will attend Connecticut College in the fall.

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